Penglai Pavilion is one of the Four Great Towers of classical Chinese architecture — a Song Dynasty complex perched on the cliff edge above the Bohai Strait, with views across the water to the Changdao Islands and, on clear days, the Liaodong Peninsula. The main pavilion, with its double-eaved roof and painted beams, is the structure most reproduced in images of Penglai; it stands within a larger complex of Taoist and Buddhist temples, walls, and a lighthouse that covers the headland.
The complex is most atmospheric in morning mist, when the pavilion appears and disappears above the strait in the shifting light — the kind of conditions that generated the legends of fairy islands. The admission fee (¥120–150) includes all the buildings on the headland, which takes about two hours to explore thoroughly. The views from the cliff walk along the headland's edge are the best in the complex.